Name Vincent Melzac | Died 1989 | |
 | ||
Vincent Melzac (1914–1989) was an American business executive and art collector, best known as one of the earliest and most daring collectors of paintings of the Washington Color School. Melzac, often described as a larger than life figure, was briefly chief executive officer of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. His legacy, the Vincent Melzac Collection has been broken up, but significant parts remain at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art.
By training an educator, Melzac was short of stature, but not boldness, a characteristic reflected both in his business affairs and his art collection. His fortune came from a chain of beauty salons, and he owned a catfish farm in West Virginia. He had a reputation for demanding a hard bargain from painters who needed his money, and it was rumored that his businesses were under investigation for false advertising.
As CEO of the Corcoran (serving concurrently with director Gene Baro in an awkward administrative structure), Melzac was a blunt and tough-minded cost-cutter. On November 3, 1972, at a black tie reception celebrating the opening of a major Sam Francis exhibition, Melzac and Baro came to blows. As recalled by Roy Slade (who succeeded Baro as Corcoran director),
Unfortunately for Melzac, a photograph of Baro's blood-streaming face was published in the New York Times and in Newsweek. Slade recounted, "The photograph of the bloody director was stark evidence that not all was well at the Corcoran." Both Melzac and Baro were dismissed by the Corcoran's board on November 30, 1972.
Melzac later became known as a breeder of Arabian race horses. His art collection was for a time loaned to the Central Intelligence Agency, and he received the CIA's Agency Seal Medallion from Director William Casey in 1982. He died October 11, 1989, in Washington, D.C.